Mental health – supporting everyone conference
🏷️ From £235
🎧 Heads, Deputy Heads, Heads of Boarding, Mental health Leads, Inclusion Leads, Nurses, Health Centre Leads, Boarding & pastoral staff
📍 Online (conference)
🎥 Watch live or on catch up
Course outline:
This one-day programme brings together leading practitioners to explore mental health and wellbeing across the whole school community. Join us to apply evidence-based strategies in your workplace and address key topics including adolescence, emotional regulation, school culture, life transitions and the role of wider influences including nutrition.
Throughout the day, expert speakers will share practical insights and actionable approaches designed to help schools create supportive, resilient environments where pupils, staff, and alumni can thrive.
Training topics will include:
- Adolescent brain development and its impact on behaviour, emotion, and decision-making
- Emotional regulation and whole-school approaches to wellbeing
- Creating supportive, psychologically safe school environments
- Practical strategies for identifying and supporting mental health needs
- The influence of lifestyle factors, including nutrition, on mental wellbeing
Learning outcomes:
- Develop a deeper understanding of adolescent development and mental health
- Gain practical strategies to support emotional regulation and positive behaviour
- Feel more confident in recognising and responding to mental health concerns
- Understand how to contribute to a whole-school culture of wellbeing
- Be equipped with realistic, evidence-based approaches that can be applied in everyday school life
Programme:
09:30 – 10:15
Session 1 – Building emotional regulation for whole school wellbeing
This session will explore what it means to create a genuinely supportive environment for mental health within a school setting. It will consider the role of school culture, relationships, and everyday practices in promoting wellbeing for pupils and staff. Drawing on practical examples and reflective discussion, the session will highlight how small, intentional changes can foster psychological safety, encourage help-seeking, and ensure mental health support is embedded across the whole school community.
Chair: David Walker, Executive Director, Boarding & Education and Director, BSA/TIOB
Speaker: Alicia Drummond, Founder, The Wellbeing Hub
10:15 – 10:30
Break
10:30 – 11:30
Session 2 – Wellbeing, Trust, and Responsibility: Alumni Care Beyond the Gates
This session explores the key aspects of alumni wellbeing and ongoing duty of care beyond the school gates. Drawing on best-practice examples, it will consider how schools can effectively support former pupils across a range of scenarios. Topics include mental and physical health, managing concerns and complaints raised by past pupils, appropriate signposting to external support, and practical approaches schools can adopt to strengthen their alumni care provision.
Chair: David Walker, Executive Director, Boarding & Education and Director, BSA/TIOB
Speaker: Chris Braitch, Director, Seen and Heard
11:30 – 11:45
Break
11:45 – 12:30
Session 3 – Building a school mental health hub: practical steps and strategies
This session explores how schools can develop and sustain an effective mental health hub to support pupils and the wider school community. Schools that have successfully established mental health hubs will share their experiences, highlighting practical steps, challenges, and lessons learned along the way. Participants will gain insight into how a coordinated, whole-school approach can improve access to support, strengthen early intervention, and embed mental wellbeing into everyday school life.
Chair: David Walker, Executive Director, Boarding & Education and Director, BSA/TIOB
Panel:
- Stacey Wallace, Head of Medical Health and Welfare, Clifton College
- Deanne Guest, Deputy Head Pastoral, Wellington College Prep
- Tiernan Mealiffe, Director of Boarding, Blackrock College
12:30 – 13:30
Lunch
13:30 – 14:15
Session 4 – Supporting young minds
This session will explore practical, evidence-based approaches to promoting mental health and wellbeing in boarding schools. Participants will learn how to equip pupils, staff, and the wider school community with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to recognize mental health challenges, provide peer support, and create a resilient, supportive environment. The session will draw on the Charlie Waller Trust’s expertise in training, resources, and consultancy to offer actionable strategies for everyday school life.
Chair: Jess McArdle, Boarding and Education Services Manager
Speaker: Ian Macdonald, Schools & Families Trainer, Charlie Waller Trust
14:15 – 14:30
Break
14:30 – 15:15
Session 5 – Supporting Staff Mental Health Under Heavy Workloads
Heavy workloads can significantly impact staff wellbeing, engagement, and performance. This panel will explore practical strategies for supporting employee mental health during high-pressure periods, from immediate interventions to longer-term cultural approaches. Panellists will discuss how organisations can create healthier, more sustainable working environments while maintaining productivity.
Chair: Gaelle Sullivan, Director of Research, Inclusion and IELA
Panel:
- Emma McKendrick, Headmistress, Downe House
- Robin Dyer, former Head, Ampleforth College
- Charlie Paterson, Housemaster, Eton College
15:30 – 16:30
Session 6 – Fuel for the mind: how nutrition shapes mental wellbeing
This session explores the connection between nutrition and mental wellbeing, examining how food choices can influence mood, cognition, stress levels, and energy availability. It will challenge common misconceptions around diet and mental health and offer practical, realistic strategies that can be easily applied in busy work and everyday life.
Chair: David Walker, Executive Director, Boarding & Education and Director, BSA/TIOB
Speaker: Dan Richardson, MSc, SENr, Performance Nutrition Expert
16:30
CONFERENCE CLOSE
Speakers:
David Walker, Executive Director, Boarding & Education and Director, BSA/TIOB
David is the Executive Director, Boarding and Director BSA/TIOB and joined the BSA group in August 2023. He has over 20 years’ experience in boarding schools and has worked in a range of schools in the UK and Africa, alongside being a prep school governor and a trustee of a MAT. Before taking up his post at the BSA, David was Deputy Head Pastoral at a large co-ed independent school in the South-East.
Gaelle Sullivan, Director of Research, Inclusion and IELA
Gaelle is Director of Research, Inclusion and IELA and joined the BSA in January 2023. She is an experienced senior leader and has worked in a range of state and independent schools. She is a qualified SENCO and holds a Masters in Inclusive Education. Prior to joining the BSA, Gaelle was Deputy Head Pastoral, DSL and Head of Boarding at an all-girls independent school in the South-East. She is a trustee at a leading independent boarding school.
Jess McArdle, Boarding and Education Services Manager
Jess joined the BSA Group in April 2022 as a Business Support Executive, bringing a broad range of experience from multiple industries. She spent nine years in the entertainment sector, working across cruise lines, holiday parks, and television, where she developed strong skills in customer service, project coordination, and creative problem-solving within fast-paced environments. Jess also worked as an Administrator for a golf signage company, refining her attention to detail and organisational expertise. In her role at BSA Group, Jess provides high-level support, enhances operational efficiency, and helps streamline processes. Her versatile background, professionalism, and proactive approach make her a highly valued and effective member of the team.
Alicia Drummond, Founder, The Wellbeing Hub
Alicia is a BACP-accredited therapist, parenting expert, and keynote speaker passionate about empowering children, young people, parents, and educators to support mental health and wellbeing. Drawing on psychotherapy, psychology, and neuroscience, she combines research with her experience as an adolescent therapist. A member of the All Party Parliamentary Group for a Fit and Healthy Childhood and a regular media contributor, Alicia has worked with schools nationwide for over a decade. In 2020, she founded The Wellbeing Hub, an award-winning platform supporting over 130,000 pupils in 220+ schools with evidence-based tools for staff, parents, carers, and pupils.
Chris Braitch, Seen and Heard, Emotional health and leadership coach
Chris Braitch is a father of three whose mission is to move himself and the world around him towards connection and compassion. He works as an emotional health coach, leadership coach with Compassionate Leaders Global, and as the founding director of Seen & Heard, and Seen & Heard Schools. Seen & Heard is not-for-profit offering wellbeing support to past and present pupils of the independent school system, their families, and the independent school sector.
Stacey Wallace, Head of Medical Health and Welfare, Clifton College
Stacey is Head of Medical Health & Welfare at Clifton College, leading a multidisciplinary health and wellbeing service supporting pupils across the College community. Appointed in 2022, she has driven the strategic development of an expanded in-school model encompassing medical health, sports health, and mental health and wellbeing, aligned with national priorities for early intervention and targeted support. A qualified nurse with experience in both the NHS and private sector, Stacey has established a dedicated wellbeing space and built a skilled team of nurses, counsellors, sports medicine professionals, and youth engagement workers. She is passionate about embedding accessible, student-centred wellbeing as a core element of pastoral care, with pupil voice central to service design.
Ian Macdonald, Schools & Families Trainer, Charlie Waller Trust
Ian has been a trainer with Charlie Waller since 2016, supporting a wide range of children’s mental health initiatives. With an original background in sport sciences, he later moved into public health and has a strong interest in the social determinants of health. Ian has worked across young people’s substance use services, local public health, Healthy Schools and Headstart programmes, and has contributed to national guidance on alcohol and drug education for Mentor-ADEPIS. He also works at the Open University, teaching on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes focused on sport, fitness and mental health in education, and sits on several research programmes and networks.
Emma McKendrick, Headmistress, Downe House
Emma is a linguist who was educated at the Universities of Liverpool and Birmingham. She was Headmistress of the Royal School Bath from 1994-97 and took up her appointment as Headmistress of Downe House in 1997. She has a great deal of experience as a Governor of a variety of independent Senior and Prep Schools and was a member of the Independent Schools’ Examination Board and was a Trustee of the Prep School Baccalaureate. She was Chair of the Prep Schools Trust, a Member of GSA, HMC and BSA and a Fellow of the RSA. She is married and has two sons. When time allows, she enjoys travel, the theatre and cinema, and spending time with her family.
Robin Dyer, former Head, Ampleforth College
After graduating with Politics Honours at Durham University, Robin became a professional cricketer with Warwickshire for six years. He later moved into education, teaching US Politics at Wellington College from 1986. Over 33 years there, he coached the 1st XI cricket team, served as a Housemaster, and spent 17 years as Second Master, acting as Master in 2005 and 2014. Robin retired in 2019 and settled in Lostwithiel, Cornwall. Shortly after, he became Headmaster of Ampleforth College, completing a successful three-and-a-half-year assignment. He retired again in December 2022 and now serves as a governor of Truro School.
Charlie Paterson, Housemaster, Eton College
Charlie Paterson started his career as a Classics teacher at Latymer Upper School before joining Eton in 2015. He became a House Master in September 2022, having previously been Deputy Head of Classics and Head of Years 12 and 13. Charlie has coached many junior rowing crews, both on the tideway and at Eton. He has also been involved in redeveloping the school’s community engagement programme and ran the school’s major charitable event, the Eton Action Fair for several years. Beyond Eton, he is a school governor, an experienced OCR examiner and a contributor to a range of A Level textbooks on Greek literature.
Dan Richardson, MSc, SENr, Performance Nutrition Expert
Dan Richardson is a performance nutrition expert who supports elite and school-level athletes to optimise their health and athletic potential. He’s worked professionally as a nutritionist with teams such as Manchester City, Sale Sharks, Warrington Wolves and currently is currently the Academy Nutrition Lead at Leeds United. His approach to nutrition is simple, evidence-based & food-first, focusing on utilising the latest nutrition research to support all students and athletes.
